The Impact of the Tigray War on Child Education and Labor in Ethiopia

Yemareshet Hailu Demeke () and Dainn Wie ()
Additional contact information
Yemareshet Hailu Demeke: Ph.D. Candidate, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan
Dainn Wie: National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan

No 25-10, GRIPS Discussion Papers from National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

Abstract: This study provides the first empirical evidence on the impact of the Tigray War (2020–2022) on children's education and child labor in Ethiopia. We combine panel data from the 2018/19 and 2021/22 waves of the Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey with geocoded conflict data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. The analysis focuses on children aged 7–18 across Ethiopia, excluding Tigray due to data limitations and endogeneity concerns. We estimate a Difference-in-Differences model with child fixed effects to compare pre- and post-war outcomes based on proximity to conflict events. We find that children living closer to conflict zones were significantly less likely to attend school or plan for future enrollment, with effects concentrated among boys and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Conflict exposure also increased child labor, particularly unpaid work for other households and state-led labor among boys—an underreported form of child involvement in conflict settings. Further analysis and anecdotal evidence suggest that insecurity and state mobilization contributed to boys’ labor participation, ultimately disrupting their education.

Keywords: Conflict; School attendance; Child labor; State-led labor; Ethiopia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2025-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://grips.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2000203 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ngi:dpaper:25-10

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in GRIPS Discussion Papers from National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).